


The Dragon and Her Husband

by shebephoebe



Series: Ben&Bea [1]
Category: Much Ado About Nothing (David T/Catherine T), Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Loving Marriage, Post-Canon, it's fluff ok? - Freeform, look I don't know how the tags work - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:33:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28629606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shebephoebe/pseuds/shebephoebe
Summary: Based on the stage production of Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. If you haven't watched it, do so; I do not do it justice in the least. Characterizations are based on character interpretations from that production (including the new character, Beatrice's aunt Imogen). Shout out to my writing buddy Ruby for helping further develop the characters and storyline. We have Lore.Story is set following the events of the play. In this case: during the honeymoon period.Note: I hate Claudio and will never be nice to his character so don't ask.
Relationships: Beatrice/Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)
Series: Ben&Bea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098035
Kudos: 11





	The Dragon and Her Husband

It was just like Claudio to get bored of matrimony not a month after the nuptials.  
The walls that were designed to carry sea breezes and gull cries served more than adequately to deliver his thin tenor voice clear across the house to their room.  
The door of which stood open, as they’d not been expecting visitors. They hadn’t been expecting much of anything except possibly to eat breakfast sometime near three o’clock.  
Beatrice sat up, her hand on Benedick’s chest. “Is that…?”  
Benedick watched shock, dismay, and horror parade across his wife’s face before they all gave way to murder. He found himself catching her for fear she would launch herself out of bed and straight at Claudio’s throat. Her eyes cut to him.  
“Get rid of him now, or I make my cousin a widow.”  
“That I should like to see!” Benedick replied, but he got up, winding a sheet around himself as he went, and shuffled through to the parlor.  
It was worth it to see the look on Claudio’s face.  
“Who let you in?” Benedick demanded.  
Claudio, who had been examining a painting Beatrice had spent three hours hanging (it was a whole ordeal with levels and lasers and toothpaste), jumped at his voice. Shock ruled his expression for several seconds before he managed to school his features. In answer to Benedick’s question, he held up the hide-a-key Benedick always kept by the back door.  
Benedick swore to himself. He’d forgotten about that one.  
“Where’s your wife?” Claudio was grinning like a freshman who had just discovered the local bar and the local girls who hung out there.  
“Where’s yours?” Benedick quipped.  
Claudio tossed the hide-a-key to him. “With her mother.” He began strolling around the room, taking note of all of Beatrice’s alterations. Outside, the waves shushed against the shore and seagulls complained to one another. They used to get fat off the parties Benedick and his comrades would throw on that beach. They were all going to starve now.  
Not if Claudio had his way, of course.  
“Don Pedro told me you rescinded your resignation.”  
Benedick had neither the time nor the patience for this. “What are you doing here, Claudio? Shouldn’t you be honeymooning with your pretty wife?”  
“I came to rescue you from yours.”  
Behind his flippant tone was a thinly-veiled suggestion that it was he who needed rescuing.  
Benedick draped himself dramatically against the doorframe, clutching folds of bedsheet to his chest. “I am beyond saving, I fear. The dragon which captured me finds herself exceedingly fond of her new treasure.”  
Claudio wrinkled his nose.  
Meanwhile Beatrice had slipped up unmarked and now, out of sight of their unwanted houseguest, flicked her husband’s ear. It took all of his military training not to flinch.  
“Away with you, Claudio. I have no need of your gallantry.” Benedick tossed the hide-a-key over his shoulder, remembering too late that it might hit his wife. As she made no sound, he assumed she had ducked. “And next time, knock.”  
Affecting an air of betrayal, Claudio stalked toward the door. “Your friends will wait for you at the usual spot should you change your mind.”  
Benedick just waved a hand at him. As soon as the door closed, he dashed across to it and locked handle and deadbolt, then fell back against it.  
Beatrice stood in his shirt across the room, contemplative.  
Quickly Benedick cried, “Poor Hero! Her honor restored, only to be wasted on that fop.”  
Beatrice arched an eyebrow. “‘The usual spot’?”  
Curse that Claudio, and Don John for ever bringing the pup into their group. Benedick tried for poetic. If nothing else, it would make her laugh.  
“I have erased all prior coordinates from my heart, and am guided now only by your beacon.”  
His wife chose to laugh. He shuffled back to her side, taking her chin in his free hand. “Should any more friends arise, I shall send out my dragon to scare them off. None can stand against you, dear Lady Disdain.”  
She accepted his kiss, too. “Least of all you.”


End file.
